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Cris Luczak
This week marked the freshman season finale for FX's Mayans M.C., the pretty stellar sequel series for the exhaust-pumping and face-bruising drama Sons of Anarchy. The flagship series has been off the air since 2014, but has remained as popular as ever due to it being a mainstay on Netflix for quite a few years now. It sounds like that reign might be over soon, though, as Netflix is reportedly getting rid of Sons of Anarchy in December.
More specifically, it's looking like December 1 will be the day that Sons of Anarchy rides off into the non-Netflix sunset. (Note that this news is apparently specific to the company's U.S. audiences, and not international ones.) The proof here, as it were, is Netflix itself. Below, you can check out the show's Details page, which pinpoints the removal date.
No direct and lengthy reasons were given, obviously, but we can draw some conclusions as to why Netflix would be parting ways with Sons of Anarchy, despite the biker drama being one of the streaming giant's most popular licensed series. The biggest factor has to be the lack of a current deal between Netflix and Fox, with the most recent partnership dissolving back in August 2017.
Since that time, Netflix has steadily been purging various Fox and FX shows from its library, which is why you can't find animated hits like Bob's Burgers or Archer anymore, nor live-action winners like It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia or Empire. (As well, nothing that has hit the network in the past two fall seasons.) In fact, Sons of Anarchy is one of few Fox and FX projects that still remains, and it's unclear how long others like American Horror Story and Gotham will stick around.
Netflix has gotten more comfortable with cancelling its own produced series recently -- check out our full rundown -- so it's assumedly easier for execs to say farewell to other studios' content. But even though it's losing all kinds of shows to other companies diving into standalone streaming services, Sons of Anarchy's popularity with customers made it seem worthy of whatever it took to keep it around Netflix for as long as possible.
Sons of Anarchy's influence is still felt in many places -- even in Canada, strangely enough -- and it will likely continue to keep bringing in new viewers. Even if it doesn't happen to be streaming on Netflix when that happens.
Of course, Netflix isn't the only streaming giant on the block anymore. Hulu stepped up its licensed TV game in recent years as Netflix made its own a second or third priority, and that's where you can find a lot of Fox and FX's original series. The Gifted, Lethal Weapon, Hell's Kitchen, Legion, and more.
Yes, Hulu is also where Sons of Anarchy fans can currently find Jax Teller and his violently botched attempts to bring peace and non-violence to Charming, California. All seven seasons of Kurt Sutter's brutal epic are available for streaming in full.
Since Sons of Anarchy is set to exit Netflix's streaming library soon, that's probably pretty convincing evidence that Mayans M.C. won't ever end up at the company. The Latinx spinoff isn't yet available on Hulu, however, so perhaps conversations are happening behind the scenes.
Sons of Anarchy, which ran for seven seasons on FX, ranks as one of the all-time greatest basic cable shows ever. The series, about an outlaw motorcycle club from California's Central Valley, had amazing characters, truly evil villains, and engaging story arcs. Best of all, it went out on a high note before it grew irrelevant, like too many shows that overstayed their welcome.
While it was appropriate to end when it did, the Sons of Anarchy finale meant fans wouldn't get their weekly dose of Jax and the crew. Luckily, there are plenty of shows that bring a similar vibe for fans to check out or rediscover. There aren't a bunch of renegade biker shows out there, but there are some, and the theme of having the heroes be criminals is quite pervasive on television.
The first, most obvious choice for fans of Sons of Anarchy is the spin-off series Mayans M.C. The Mayans were sometime foes and occasional allies of SAMCRO, in the original series and branched out with their own show. While the series is primarily focused on new characters, including EZ Reyes, an ambitious young prospect, there are several great surprise visitors from the old motorcycle clubs.
Created by Kurt Sutter, who also conceived SoA, Mayans M.C. captures everything fans loved about the original series with dynamic new characters, complex storylines, and, of course, good old-fashioned violence. The series is sure to satisfy but presents a similar problem in that it has already concluded. After five strong seasons, the Mayan M.C. series finale aired in July 2023 on F/X.
One of the big draws of Sons of Anarchy was the blinding violence and fans can certainly scratch that itch by watching the streaming series The Punisher. The television adaptation of the vengeful Marvel character was originally aired on Netflix, but after Disney retained the rights, it now streams on Disney+, making it easily the most brutal thing on the family-oriented streaming service.
Fresh from his stint as Shane on The Walking Dead, Jon Bernthal brought intensity to the role of former Force Recon Marine Frank Castle, A.K.A. The Punisher, on his quest to make the people responsible for his family's death pay the ultimate price. The Punishersadly only ran for two seasons, but they are well worth watching, and Bernthal will reprise The Punisher in the upcoming Disney+ series Daredevil: Born Again.
During its four-season run, the HBO crime series, The Wire, was often described as the best show that nobody was watching. With anemic initial ratings, the show has gone on to become a cult hit, appreciated for its realistic and gritty portrayal of crime in the city of Baltimore. The show tried to represent all aspects of city life, from politics to the press, but what really gripped fans were the organized and disorganized criminal operations.
Whether it was intentional or not, The Wire made heroes out of characters like drug kingpin Stringer Bell, played brilliantly by Idris Elba, and hitwoman Snoop, who was portrayed by a real-life convicted murderer. Omar Little, the drug dealer who robs other drug dealers, played to perfection by Michael K. Willaims, is one of the greatest characters ever conceived. Fans of Sons of Anarchy will appreciate these lawless antiheroes.
Prison Break was a clever crime series that aired on Fox for five seasons with a stand-alone feature film. It told the story of a brilliant structural engineer's elaborate plan to break his brother, who had been falsely convicted of murder, out of prison. Sons of Anarchy fans will enjoy the story structure that plays out throughout a season, as well as the colorful array of criminal, and even criminally insane, characters.
There are also some parallels between Prison Break's main protagonist, Michael Scofield, and Sons of Anarchy's Jax Teller in that they are both good guys who have to do bad things in the pursuit of the greater good. The first two seasons are essential viewing, while the third and fourth are still quite good, but the fifth and final seasons stretched the premise too far. The movie, however, is a nice companion piece that's worth a look.
An outlaw motorcycle club is basically an updated version of an Old West outlaw gang, so Hell on Wheels is a perfect series for fans of Sons of Anarchy. In SoA, Jax teller is a renegade biker who works his way to the top of his motorcycle club, while in Hell on Wheels, Cullen Bohannon is a renegade cowboy, who works his way to the top of a crew building the Transcontinental Railroad. Both men have haunted pasts but exist in different centuries.
Hell on Wheels premiered in 2011 on AMC and was the cable network's second-highest debut behind The Walking Dead. The reason the show was so popular is that it had incredible writing and even better acting from star, Anson Mount and the supporting cast of Colm Meaney, Common, and Robin McLeavy, No show can be truly great without a brilliant villain and Christopher Heyerdahl as The Swede ranks as one of the creepiest baddies in TV history.
Robert and Michelle King's legal drama follows Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies), who put her flourishing legal career on hold to support her husband's (Chris Noth) political ambitions, as she returns to the fray after a devastating cheating scandal. She soon works her way up the ranks at a prestigious firm, all the while dealing with her own life and choices. The series may get its title from Margulies' character, but the highlights are often found elsewhere, like in Christine Baranski's spiky senior partner Diane Lockhart, Archie Panjabi's hard-nosed investigator Kalinda, and the idiosyncratic characters who populate the Chicago legal world (Michael J Fox's Louis Canning being a particular highlight). Not to mention the show's commitment to thoughtfully tackling topical issues. The spirit of The Good Wife (with the added ability for its characters to swear) lives on in spin-off The Good Fight.
Most famous for pushing the boundaries of what was allowed on American network television, NYPD Blue is better remembered for the characters it created than the controversies. Creators Stephen Bochco and David Milch brought indelible people to the screen, as Dennis Franz' complicated, cranky Andy Sipowicz grumbled his way through day-to-day detective police work. David Caruso pulled the ripcord and left after Season One (he would regret it), but the show went from strength to strength, Franz finding his most solid partnership with Jimmy Smits' Detective Bobby Simone. Many police series of the modern era owe thanks to the Blue team, and it's still missed.
The UK has often tackled sci-fi on the small screen, but the sci-fi comedy is a much rarer beast. Red Dwarf at its prime was one of our greatest examples: the budget may not have been intergalactic, but the characters pinged off each other and the vast majority of the jokes landed. Dave Lister (Craig Charles) is the last man left alive on the eponymous mining vessel, with just an uptight hologram (Chris Barrie's Rimmer, an all-time great comedy loser snob), an evolved cat-man (Danny John-Jules' ebullient, vain Cat), a nervy android (Robert Lewellyn's Kryten) and the ship's less-than able computer Holly (Norman Lovett) for company. The show expanded beyond its initial concept and enjoyed a decade-long revival run on Dave, but those early seasons remain the glory days.
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